Method of diffusing water-vapor in the atmosphere of rooms.



UNITED STATES IATEISITI oEEIoE.'`

JONATHAN WRIGHT AND WILILIAM H. MARSHALL, E PLEASANTVILLE, NEW YORK.

l METHOD or DIEEUSING WATER-vieron IN THE ATMOSPHERE or Rooms.

Specication of Letters Patent. Patented NOV, 26, 1918 Application ledpFebruary 10, 1916..- Serial N o. 77,426.-

To all 'whom it may concern.' v

Be it known that we, JONATHAN WRIGHT and WILLIAM H. MARSHALL, both citizensof the United States of America, and both residents of Pleasantville, Westchester county,

y New'York have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Dilfusing VVater-Vapor in the Atmosphere of Rooms, of which the following is a specifi cation.

Our invention consists in a method of diffusing water vapor'in the atmosphere of a room so as to secure and maintain the proper relationship between the temperature of the room in cold weather and the humidity. The purpose of the invention is accomplished by means of the evaporation of water, the expansion of the resulting water vapor and the diiiusion of the same throughout the room by means of currents of hot air.

In order to fully explain the results arrived at it will be necessary to irst set forth practical principles in- The free air surrounding dwellings contains water vapor in proportion to the tem perature and varying to a conslderable'degree with other factors not necessary to enumerate. The relationship of temperature and water-vapor-content of the air is expressed by the dew point, defined as that .temperature of the air at which the fusion into the general atmosphere of the moisture present in it just saturates it. In evaporating waterin a ro0in, the vapor must be rapidly removed from' the point where it is generated or it will condense and be precipitated there, and thus its dif room prevented. As the temperature falls -the saturation point of the vair for water.

vapor 1s correspondingly lowered. Below the freezing point the water vapor cont-ent of the outdoor airbeomes rapidly very small. lOrdinarily thisS air is drawn into steam heated houses Where the temperature is 70 F. or above. This high temperature and very low humidity, due to out-door freezing, quickly extract moisture from furniture, woodwork, books, etc. which are soon damaged thereby. More seriously, it results in rapid evaporation of moisture from the surface of human beings, causing a feel,- ing oflchilliness even at a high temperature of the surrounding air in the room'. All living beings, plantsas wellas animals, are

surrounded by a thin layer of air filled by I vapor from their own bodies, lwhich being a bad conductor of heat, helps to preserve the body temperature within physiological limits. In ,the open air, exercise by producing bodily heat and increasing the in' sensible perspiration andi-.hereby the denv temperature withinthe house'fregisters 7 5 I or 80 F.- To obv-iate this condition, and to save the wastage of fuel, it is necessary to `supply the air in the dwelling-,with a proper amount of moisture as this will prevent too rapid evaporation from the surface of the body. As a vmatter of factA this proper amount is very large, far in exces's of V"what has hitherto been supposed necessary and vfar in excess of what is practicable to secure from the vapor within the ordinary steam heating system, for example, or from the-evaporation of water in pans on, or in contact with, pipes and radiators, for vwhile in warm, moist weatherlittle or lno extra evaporation is necessary and in fact may be undesirable, in dry zero weather l an amount of Water probably in excess of 'air and vis precipitated, but the vapor must I be ditt'us'edthrough the room by superheating it, as by causing 'it to impinge against the hot coils or pipes of the radiator above j the evaporatng pan, and sent out through the roomin thel currents of hot air before it condenses and is precipitated. Simple generation of the water vapor is not enough.

lt must be expanded by additional heat, supplied for example by the radiator'.

The general method by which we have secured this result consists in immersing the lower part of some of the steam carrying coils of a steam radiator, for example, or a portion of the steam supply pipe of the radiator, in a receptacle of water, beneath the radiator. The vapor arising from vthe contact of the water with these hot surfaces may be regulated in amount by the extent to which the water is allowed to cover these surfaces. As the vapor rises from beneath the radiator coils it is borne up between and around them by the currents of hot air they generate and thrown out into the general atmosphere of the room, the heat from the radiator preventing condensation of the vapor.

No extra supply of fuel is necessary, in practising our method., to generate any given amount of heat. As a matter of fact a large saving of fuel is attained because it is not necessary to keep the temperature of the living room (otherwise at 800 F.) above TOO in the coldest weather. Physical comfort and health is vastly greater at the latter temperature of properly moistened air than at one 10 higher, which under the present conditions, Without air moistening, it is necessary to obtain to be comfortable in the coldest weather.

ln' the following we have described. with reference to thel accompanying drawings, a means -for practising our method, the features thereof being more particularly pointed out hereinafter in the claims.

ln the drawings Figure l is a side eleva.- tion of one forni of apparatus adapted for the carrying out of our invention; Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same.

Similar numerals of reference indicate similar parts throughout the several views.

'In the drawings. l indicates the usual form of steam radiator formed of a plu-, rality of sections '12, 2 suitably connected for the passage of steam therethrough. 33 (Fig. l) indicates the steam 'supply pipe, pro-4 vided with a shut-off valve el for controlling the passage of steam from pipe 3 through pipe 5 into'sections or coils 2, 2. 6 indicates the usual air valve. 7 indicates a receptacle for water placed beneath radiator l and open at the top. 8 indicates the water supply pipe controlled by `lioat valve 9. The float l0 of Heat valve 9 is provided with a relief valve ll to permit the escape of air in the float upon becoming heated, l2 indicates an over flow pipe. i3 indicates a doen.'

preferably water tight permitting access to float valve 9 for purposes of regulation. ls, lll indicate supports for legs l5, l5 of ra diator l.

The apparatus as described and as shown in Figs. l and 2 is peculiarly adapted for use isaiasi/e in connection with existing heating systems. Steam supply pipe 3 is shown as eX- tcnding diagonally upward through and across receptacle from the lower. or steam pipe entrance end to the upper or steam pipe exit end of thevreeeptacle. rlhe diagonal course of the pipe through the water in the receptacle permits the more accurate regulation of hot surface to be covered by the water, the relation between the surfaces radiating dry heat through'the air and surfaces for vaporizing water from the receptacle being varied by covering more or less of the hot pipe in the receptacle with water. The method of varying or regulating the amount of pipe surface covered by the water is obvious. -For example the overflow pipe may be capable of vertical. or telescopic adjustment in the usual well known way. rlhe distance between the surface of the water and the bottom of the heatingmeans l may thus be maintained at any predetermined point. The depth of the water in the receptacle is immaterial yprovided 'the requisite surface of hot pipe is covered, but the amount of vapor generated is to a large degree dependent upon the area of water surface exposed.

The water vapor rising from the receptacle passes upward against and around the sect-ions or coils of the radiator, as indicated by the arrows, and is there superheated and expanded, the temperature of the radiator being higher than the temperature of the water vapor. rl`he rising current. of warm air from the radiator will diiicuse the super heated and expanded water vapor out into the roomlatcrally of the radiator (assume ing the latter to be adjacent a. wall) as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2. lt is essential that the water vapor impinge against no surface or mingle with no air colder than itself before it is expanded or didused as otherwise it will condense and precipitate.

rEhe inflow of water to the receptacle may be adi usted by means of the valve 9 so that just the amount of water vapor will be given off to furnish the atmosphere of the room with the desired percentage of moisture at the temperature of the room.

While we have described the method in connection with a steam heating system it obvious that it is not restricted to use in connection with such. lt may readily and obviously be used in connection with hot water heating systems and the principles of the invention are applicable to other heat ing systems as well.

he method however possesses especial advantxges in connection with steam heating systems. lt avoid-s the abstraction of heat from the steam pipes and the condensation or killing of the steam within them. by regulating the water in the receptacles so that inst the quantity of water is let into the receptacle which the hot pipe and'coil surfaces vaporize.- The water gages show the height of the water on these surfaces which can be regulated according to the desire of the inmates for more or less lmoistening yof the atmosphere.

.This method of airmoistening may be applied to each radiator or steam pipe or to one or more, as desirable, in a private dwelling or larger' building. lThe interference with the free circulation of the vapor,

arising from the Water receptacle among the hot steam or water coils, above, by means of which it is further heated and expanded, has prevented some of the previousdevices from working. This,`properly provided for by thelose approximation of the water coils ately to condense it into water and prevents its furthercirculation. A revolving fanused for this purpose, unless made hotter than the water vapor would disperse the air, but not the vapor of thewater. Indeed it would tend more quickly to condense the latter, by making air currents independentl of those generated by heat.

.As an example of the quantity' of Water necessary, for theproper moistening'ofth'e airof a room We might state that in the use of one form of our apparatus in a room of approximately'2800 cubic feet We evaporated over a period of some weeks an amount of water sufiicient to produce at 70 F. of the drybulb of the hygrometer a position of the mercury in the wet bulb of about F. representing a humidity of 56 per cent., while in a room in which dry radiation alone existed the humidity was at the Vsame time approximately 30%, these being the readings of the instruments in .the'rooms when the temperature outside the house was about 20 F. The amount of water evaporated to produce this result was' approximately'l a gallon an hour and with a lower outside temperature and consequent lower degree of humidity would even exceed this amount. Any device or method which would not provide fora veryl Wide variation in moisture evaporated would therefore be inefficient.'

Furthermore by the rpractice of our method we are enabled to decrease the amount of `2. A method of diffusing water vapor in lthe atmosphere of a room consisting in proconstant predetermined relation between lthe .perature above the temperature of the water radiating surface of the. heaters by an amount approximately 20% We claim: 1. A method of diffusing water Vapor in and upward.v

l the atmosphere of a room consisting in proyiding an open topped receptacle for water 1n close proximity to but beneath a steam radiator, heating the Water to evaporate the same by passing thesteam supply pipev inclined through the water receptacle to the radiator so that the water is subjected to the heat fromthe pipe before the steam reaches the radiator, maintaining a constant predetermined relation between the height of the Water in tl'ie receptacle and the amount of the surface of the steam supply pipe cov-` ered thereby while permitting regulation of said height, maintaining the radiator at a temperature above the temperature of the water vapor from the receptacle, 'passing the water vapor upward from the exposed surface of said receptacle in an unobstructed path directlyto and around said radiator, expanding said water .vapor by contact with the surfaces of said radiator andbringing f the expanded vapor in the -path of a current of hot air within andaround said radiator to diifuse the same throughl the room.

viding an open topped receptacle for water in close proximity to but beneath a heating means, heating the water to4 evaporate the same by subjecting it to the infiuence of heat radiated from the medium for heating the heating means before said medium reaches said heating means,lregulating the amount of water vapor given oif by'rnaintaining av 5' 9 height of the Water in the receptacle and the surface transmitting said radiated heat while permitting`- regulation of said height, maintaining said heating means at a temmo vapor, passing said water vapor upward v from thev exposed surface of said receptacle in an unobstructed path -to and over said heating means, superheating and expanding said water vapor by contactwith said heating means and bringing ,the superheated and expanded vaporin the path of aA current of hot air to diffuse' the same through'the room. In testimony whereof we have signed this specification. l p y JONATHAN WRIGHT. WILLIAM H. MARSHALL. 

